Scam seeks account info through email, fake web page

Many residents around the parish have received an email purporting to be from First National Bank USA that tells them that their account has been suspended, but the bank is warning customers that it would never send such an email.

The scam has hit the area before, but usually uses larger bank chains, such as Capital One. Like similar scams, the email says it is from First National Bank USA and goes on to say that the person has received the  message because their account has been suspended for security reasons.

The email asks the recipient to open up a link that takes them to a Web site that resembles the bank’s. That’s when they ask for account information, such as card or PIN numbers.

Bank security manager Kevin Robert said that scams like these are common.

“All they have to do is print out our web page and then design a page like it,” he said. “The page comes as an attachment in the e-mail, and people should never open up attachments from a strange source in the first place.”

Robert said that several people have received the email and that he even got a call from a man in an area miles away from St. Charles who had gotten the message.

“It’s so easy to get a list of e-mail addresses…it’s just as easy to get an e-mail address as it is to get a phone number,” Robert said. “This email isn’t going out to our customers specifically, but is going out to a lot of random people.”

So far, Robert is not aware of any bank accounts that have been compromised due to the scam.

“We would never send out an email asking for any account information,” he said.

In July, First National Bank USA was forced to block all ATM withdrawals for a short period after a telephone scam.

The automated calls went out to residents across the parish and did not target only those that banked with First National Bank USA. In the event that the service reached a bank customer, it told them that their debit cards had been cancelled. To reinstate their cards, the automated service asked the customer to punch in their card number and PIN.